Geraldine League | |
---|---|
Demonym(s) | Geraldine |
Membership |
|
Government | Military alliance |
• Founders | Manus O'Donnell, Conn O'Neill |
Establishment | 1539 |
Today part of | Ireland |
The Geraldine League was a short-lived Irish alliance established in 1539 by Manus O'Donnell and Conn O'Neill.
The league was founded with the goal of restoring Gerald FitzGerald to the earldom of Kildare. The movement ultimately grew to encompass the goal of expelling the English from Ireland, and in the fall of 1539 the League invaded and looted The Pale. After sacking the towns of Ardee and Navan, the League withdrew from Pale and were caught by surprise by the forces of Lord Deputy Leonard Gray, who ultimately routed them at the Battle of Belahoe. The League gradually dissolved over the course of the next few years with the arrival of a new Lord Deputy, Anthony St. Leger, who was able to restore order to English-controlled Ireland. [1] [2]
Sir Henry Sidney was an English soldier, politician and Lord Deputy of Ireland.
Conn Bacagh O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone was an Irish lord who ruled over Tyrone from 1519 to 1558. In 1541 O'Neill travelled to England to submit to Henry VIII as part of the surrender and regrant policy that coincided with the creation of the Kingdom of Ireland. He was made Earl of Tyrone, but his plans to pass the title and lands on to a chosen successor Matthew were thwarted by a violent succession dispute that led to another son, Shane O'Neill, emerging triumphant.
Manus O'Donnell was a Gaelic Irish lord and King of Tyrconnell. After his father Hugh Dubh's death in 1537, Manus succeeded as Tyrconnell's ruler. In 1555 he was imprisoned and deposed by his son Calvagh, who effectively took over the kingdom's leadership. Manus died during his imprisonment in Lifford.
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The Norman Irish or Hiberno-Normans, also known as the Old English, are Irish families descended from Norman settlers who arrived during the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century, mainly from England and Wales. During the High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages, the Hiberno-Normans constituted a feudal aristocracy and merchant oligarchy, known as the Lordship of Ireland. The Hiberno-Normans were also closely associated with the Gregorian Reform of the Catholic Church in Ireland and were responsible for the emergence of Hiberno-English.
The Battle of Knockdoe took place on 19 August 1504 at Knockdoe, in the Parish of Lackagh, County Galway, between two Anglo-Irish lords – Gerald FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and Ulick Fionn Burke, 6th Clanricarde – along with their respective Irish allies. The cause was a dispute between Maelsechlainn mac Tadhg Ó Cellaigh (O'Kelly), King of Ui Maine – Mod. Irish Uí Mháine) and Clanricarde. The major contemporary sources for this battle are the Gaelic Irish annals and a sixteenth-century manuscript written in the Pale known as "the Book of Howth".
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Tír Eoghain, also known as Tyrone, was a kingdom and later earldom of Gaelic Ireland, comprising parts of present-day County Tyrone, County Armagh, County Londonderry and County Donegal (Raphoe). The kingdom represented the core homeland of the Cenél nEógain people of the Northern Uí Néill and although they ruled, there were smaller groups of other Gaels in the area. One part of the realm to the north-east broke away and expanded, becoming Clandeboye, ruled by a scion branch of the O'Neill dynasty. In one form or another, Tyrone existed for over a millennium. Its main capital was Dungannon, though kings were inaugurated at Tullyhogue Fort.
Events from the year 1539 in Ireland.
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The Master of the Rolls in Ireland was a senior judicial office in the Irish Chancery under English and British rule, and was equivalent to the Master of the Rolls in the English Chancery. Originally called the Keeper of the Rolls, he was responsible for the safekeeping of the Chancery records such as close rolls and patent rolls. The office was created by letters patent in 1333, the first holder of the office being Edmund de Grimsby. As the Irish bureaucracy expanded, the duties of the Master of the Rolls came to be performed by subordinates and the position became a sinecure which was awarded to political allies of the Dublin Castle administration. In the nineteenth century, it became a senior judicial appointment, ranking second within the Court of Chancery behind the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The post was abolished by the Courts of Justice Act 1924, passed by the Irish Free State established in 1922.
The Battle of Belahoe or Ballyhoe was fought in 1539 between the O'Neills and O'Donnells against English forces, in which the O'Neills and O'Donnells were defeated.
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Sir Thomas Luttrell was a wealthy Anglo-Irish landowner of the sixteenth-century Irish Pale. He was also a distinguished lawyer and judge who held the offices of King's Serjeant, Solicitor General for Ireland and Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.
Walter Wellesley (c.1470–1539) was a sixteenth-century Irish cleric and judge. He was Prior of Great Connell Priory, Bishop of Kildare 1529-39, and Master of the Rolls in Ireland 1531-2.
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Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare KG, known variously as "Garret the Great" or "The Great Earl", was Ireland's premier peer. He served as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1477 to 1494, and from 1496 onward. His power was so great that he was called "the uncrowned King of Ireland".